K E Swab: August 2022

Running by South Burnt Hill Pond
(photo by FLRC)

Mud or No Mud?

I spend Friday night worrying about rain. Although the weather in the Finger Lakes region has been dry, race reports on previous Finger Lakes 50s indicate that the course can be wet all the time, and rain can quickly add water to the stream crossings on the course. Light rain falls overnight while I sleep fitfully.

The race fills up quickly, and I registered on January 1, when registration opened (and closed). It will be the second time running the race, which I first ran in 2007.

Up at 5 a.m., and there is a bit of mist in the air; maybe some intermittent raindrops as well. Sandy drives me from our Watkins Glen house to the start at the Potomac Group Campground in the Finger Lakes National Forest. A deer dashes across County Road 4 on the way.

Sandy drops me off and I struggle to put on my 'emergency' plastic poncho for the walk to the campground. It isn't exactly raining but it isn't exactly not raining either. There's no cell service there so I can't check the radar. Finally I decide that since the forecast calls for improving conditions as the day progresses, I can go without. But I wear a hat in case. And gaiters to keep mud out of my shoes (realizing as I put them on that I didn't attach velcro to the heel to secure the back of the gaiter). I loan a trash bag to another runner so that he can keep his bag dry in case it does rain.

The cowless first pasture.

Don't' Let the Cows Out!

The race motto is "Don't Let the Cows Out" as we will run thru three cow pastures. The last minute instructions from the race director emphasis that this calls for ditching the usual politeness to following runners. "If they are not within touching distance of the gate," he says, "close it. We can't have cows escaping if this race is to continue."

The course is a 16.5 mile loop in the Finger Lakes National Forest. One loop for the 25K, two loops for the 50K and three loops for the 50 miler (plus a "baby loop"). And yes, that's 33 miles, not 31.1 miles for the 50K, but the purpose is to get the 50 milers almost finished (49.5 miles) in 3 loops. Anyway, the distance is what the race director says it is.

Down and up trail

At 6:30 a.m. the 50M and 50K runners start. The 25K runners will start an hour later. Down gravel Potomac Road we go before turning right and onto single track. We cross a road, run along a pasture fence line, then thru a gate into the pasture. No cows are in sight and it appears that none have used this pasture for awhile. We exit on the far side, being sure to close the gate. Then it is a long downhill on the unpaved Mark Smith Road. I take it easy on the downhill as I have no interest in trashing my thighs early.

Don't Let the Cows Out!

The weather is pretty good for July 2 - it's overcast and the temperature is warm but not oppressive. And there is no rain. And an even greater surprise is that the course is pretty dry. This is due to the drought conditions that the Finger Lakes have been experiencing. The bit of rain the night before has settled the dust down without creating mud or raising the little or no water in the streams on the course.

Close the Gate.

From the Morgue Aid Station on Mark Smith Road, the course turns onto the Gorge Trail, going upward before turning downhill to the South Beach Aid Station. The trail skirts a pond, but it isn't swampy. Then it is more downhill on the Interlaken Trail before looping back up to South Beach on the South Slope Trail. (As far as I can tell, the aid station names are apropos of nothing.)

From there it is north on the Interlaken Trail, crossing Matthews Road with nice views of Seneca Lake to the west while crossing another cow pasture (a rare place with a cell signal) to a right to the Library Aid Station on Burnt Hill Road. Then into the forest again, with a steep and scary descent on the aptly named Ravine Trail, followed by the inevitable uphill that follows a descent.

Then past the horse camp and north on the Backbone Trail. On the trail some rain starts to fall and I switch my hat around for backward to forward. But the shower doesn't last long and the Outback Aid Station, is next to the third pasture of the day, this one with grazing cows. On the far side of the pasture two cows are near the gate grazing. Or are they just waiting for someone to let them out? I make sure to close the gate behind me.

This is the homestretch (a couple of miles anyway) back to the finish at the campground. Stretches of pine forest, some boardwalks to run on, another pond or two to skirt, and in 4:04:24 I've completed the first lap.

Alongside a pasture on the Burnt Hill Trail

Second Lap

I change my shirt, taking off my 2007 FL50s shirt, ditch my hat and head out on my second loop. My goal is to finish the race in 9 hours, so I feel good about having close to five hours for the second loop. No hurry, no worry, even as 50 milers on their third loops speed by me.

Every Runner Has a Story

I'm in no hurry (from the start, not just the second loop), and take the opportunity to chat with other runners as I can. Some of these conversations happened on the first loop, and not necessarily in the order presented.

Alongside South Burnt Hill Pond

I run a bit with a runner from Pittsburgh and tell her about running Hell Hath No Hurry there. She points to her visor - it's from HHNH. We trade stories about our experiences at it and discuss the race director, Peter K, who is my first cousin, once removed. My first cousin is the grillmaster at the race.

A bell in memory.

One woman tells me this is her first race. Do you mean your first trail run, or first marathon, or first ultra I ask. No, my first race, she replies. I've never entered a race before, she says. She is a triathlete, so she has done runs as part of those events, but never just entered something that is a solely a running event. She says she is enjoy the event.

On the Backbone Trail during the first loop I come upon a couple walking ahead. One of them is limping. I express concern and offer salt tabs or ibuprofen if it will help. The runner says its OK, that while he won't be able to run, they are close enough to the campground that they will make the first loop cutoff of five and a half hours and will be able to walk out the second loop.

Outback Aid Station

The Horses Smell the Barn

On the second pass through the pasture by Mathews Road I spot the cowbell hung with colorful flags from a tree. I ring it as I pass, as it was put there by the Finger Lakes Running Club in memory of a member who had passed, but who loved running there. We runners are urged to ring it for him.

Boardwalk

I linger a bit at the Outback Aid station, in no particular hurry as I eat, chat with the volunteer and enjoy the view. A women runners comes hustling thru, not stopping for anything. The volunteers yell at her for her bib number so they can log her passage. "Nine," she shouts over her shoulder. She is Maura Tyrrell, and is on her way to being the first female (sixth overall) in the 50 mile race.

It's a bit of a reminder that I, too, should get moving on. Thru the cow pasture, but the cows have moved on, into the piney woods, over the boardwalks and around the first of the Potomac Ponds, where people are floating on tubes and rafts.

I come across a woman hiker I saw earlier in the day when we had exchanged pleasantries. She tells me that I only have 3/4 of a mile to the finish. I look at my watch (I had shut the GPS down at the Outback Aid Station to conserve what little battery life remained), do some mental calculations and figure I can finish under nine hours. Since I haven't been hurrying the second loop, I have plenty left in the tank, and get my giddy-up on (although it might not have seemed so giddy-up to a dispassionate second party observer). A brief moment of confusion near the end is resolved by people pointing me in the right direction, and I finish in the second loop in 4:48:50, for a final time of 8:53:13.

I have more than an hour to wait until Sandy arrives to pick me up, so I take my time sitting under a pavilion, watch other runners finish, chat with people, and get the post-race meal of BBQ tacos and salt potatoes. There is no beer available (officially), but there is non-alcoholic Athletic Brewing Upside Dawn. It turns out to exceed expectations so I ask for a second. And as I have time, later I have a Free Wave IPA. Hydration following a July ultra is important for recovery, after all.